Three games, 59 carries, 148 total yards rushing and a 2.5 yards-per-carry average are statistics that will get a running back noticed – in a bad way.

Gore, in his seventh NFL season, didn’t seem anything like the back he’d been his first six years in a 49ers uniform, when he’d had four 1,000-yard seasons and been the focus of the team’s rushing attack.

He’d always been quick, strong and versatile, as good out of the backfield as a receiver as he was carrying the ball.

But after the team’s victory over Cincinnati in Week 3 – when rookie Kendall Hunter came off the bench to rush for a key score – some were starting to wonder if Gore, 28, wasn’t the same back he’d been before.

Perhaps an ankle injury and six seasons of NFL abuse were taking their toll.

Two weeks later, however, that tune has changed.

The Gore of today is the Gore of yore.

In Sunday’s 48-3 win over Tampa Bay, Gore averaged 6.3 yards per carry in rushing for 125 yards. The previous week, he averaged 8.5 yards per rush in getting 127 yards against the Eagles.

“He has his burst back,” head coach Jim Harbaugh told the San Jose Mercury News after Sunday’s game. “He looked like Frank. He’s having fun out there. That’s the thing I see in Frank – that he’s enjoying football.”

These days, too, with Alex Smith playing well at quarterback, opposing defenses can’t do what they used to do against the 49ers: load up in the box to stop the run and dare Smith to beat them.